New Books in American Studies
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
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6701
Anne Sebba, “That Woman: The Life of Wallis Sim...
The story of Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor is more often than not presented as a great love story: she is the woman for whom the King gave up the throne. It’s precisely this oversimplification of the facts that Anne Sebba seeks to correct in h...
39 min
6702
Katherine Stewart, “The Good News Club: The Chr...
In her shocking new book, The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children (Public Affairs, 2012), Katherine Stewart describes how factions of the Christian Right, through groups such as the Good News Club,
31 min
6703
Brian Ingrassia, “The Rise of Gridiron Universi...
During this week of the 4th of July, it’s appropriate to mark America’s national holiday with a podcast about that most American of sports: college football. As past guests on the podcast have explained, widely followed,
54 min
6704
Sara Marcus, “Girls to the Front: The True Stor...
Harkening out of the United State’s Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile made a big enough splash that their names and songs are still recognized by many rock fans. And those of us who do recognize these bands tend to link t...
58 min
6705
David A. Kirby, “Lab Coats in Hollywood: Scienc...
First things first: this was probably the most fun I’ve had working through an STS monograph. (Really: Who doesn’t like reading about Jurassic Park and King Kong?) In addition to being full of wonderful anecdotes about the film and television industrie...
63 min
6706
John Fonte, “Sovereignty or Submission?: Will A...
In his new book, Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others? (Encounter Books, 2011), John Fonte, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for American Common Culture at Hudson Institute,
46 min
6707
Erica R. Edwards, “Charisma and the Fictions of...
Picture the familiar scene: the visiting pastor thanks the local pastor for granting him the use of his pulpit; he sends out the call (“Can I just speak with you this morning?”) and the congregation responds (“Yessir! Amen!”).
71 min
6708
Mitchel Sollenberger, “The President’s Czars: U...
Mitchel A. Sollenberger, assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Mark J. Rozell, professor of public policy at George Mason University, have co-authored the provocative The President’s Czars: Undermining Con...
32 min
6709
Koritha Mitchell, “Living with Lynching: Africa...
Koritha Mitchell‘s Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930 (University of Illinois Press, 2012) is, as described on the publisher’s webpage, “the first full-length critical study of lynching plays ...
62 min
6710
Igor Marjanovic, “Marina City: Bertrand Goldber...
Anyone who has visited downtown Chicago will remember seeing the dazzling round towers of Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City on the north bank of the river. Often photographed, always a curiosity, these iconic buildings have been featured in numerous maga...
60 min
6711
John Harwood, “The Interface: IBM and the Trans...
Philip Kretsedemas is the author of Migrants and Race in the US: Territorial Racism and the Alien/Outside (Routledge, 2014). Kretsedemas is associate professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts-Boston.
66 min
6712
Kelly Baker, “Gospel According to the Klan: The...
If images of white robes, pointed hoods, and a burning cross represent racism and violence for you then you are not alone. But do they also evoke ideas of nationalism, Protestantism, and masculinity? In the early twentieth century,
62 min
6713
Nicolas Rosenthal, “Reimagining Indian Country:...
The term “Indian Country” evokes multiple themes. Encompassing legal, geographic, and ideological dimensions, “Indian Country” is commonly understood to be a space outside of or surrounded by the boundaries of the United States.
48 min
6714
Kathy Sloane, “Keystone Korner: Portrait of a J...
Kathy Sloane‘s Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club (Indiana UP, 2011) captures a time and place in San Francisco in the 70s and early 80s that we may never see again. Owner/impresario/musician Todd Barkan ran the club on a frayed financial shoestr...
50 min
6715
Gregory A. Daddis, “No Sure Victory: Measuring ...
Ask any student or aficionado of the Vietnam War (1965-1972) for a top ten list of artifacts “unique” to the war, and chances are the phenomenon of “body counts” as a tool for measuring success in the field will come up. Indeed,
53 min
6716
David J. Leonard, “After Artest: The NBA and th...
The NBA Finals are under way, with the Oklahoma City Thunder facing the Miami Heat. Network executives and the sports punditocracy are elated with the match-up. Ratings for Game 1 of the series were up more than 10 per cent over last year,
55 min
6717
Bob Riesman, “I Feel So Good: The Life and Time...
Big Bill Broonzy was a master storyteller. From his name, he was born Lee Conly Bradley, to his age, he typically added a decade, to the facts of his growing up in the pre-civil rights segregated South (not that he didn’t,
63 min
6718
Enid Logan, “At this Defining Moment: Barack Ob...
Enid Logan‘s At this Defining Moment: Barack Obama: Presidential Candidacy and the New Politics of Race (NYU Press, 2011) examines the campaign and politics around the election of Barack Obama from a sociological perspective.
33 min
6719
Jay Cost, “Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of ...
In his new book Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic (Broadside Books, 2012), Jay Cost, a political analyst and columnist for The Weekly Standard,
52 min
6720
John Cheng, “Astounding Wounder: Imagining Scie...
John Cheng‘s new book Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) uncovers the material and social circumstances that created the social phenomenon of American science fiction.
75 min
6721
Erin D. Chapman, “Prove It On Me: New Negroes, ...
Whoever states the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words” grossly underestimates. So Erin D. Chapman shows in Prove It On Me: New Negroes, Sex, and Popular Culture in the 1920s (Oxford University Press, 2012).
72 min
6722
Gregory McNamee, “The Only One Living to Tell: ...
Late in 1872, as the United States sought to clear the newly incorporated Southwest of its indigenous inhabitants, a company under Capt. James Burns came upon an encampment of Kwevkepayas (a branch of Yavapais) sheltering in the shadow of rock overhang...
47 min
6723
Susan Harris, “God’s Arbiters: Americans and th...
Mark Twain called it “pious hypocrisies.” President McKinley called it “civilizing and Christianizing.” Both were referring to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines in 1899. Susan K. Harris‘ latest book, God’s Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines,
66 min
6724
Kevin Whitehead, “Why Jazz? A Concise Guide” (O...
Kevin Whitehead‘s highly readable, informative and entertaining Why Jazz? A Concise Guide (Oxford University Press, 2011) is bookshelf “must have” for anyone who loves jazz – and he does it in a question/answer call and response style that is the perfe...
53 min
6725
Jonah Goldberg, “The Tyranny of Cliches: How Li...
In his new book, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (Sentinel HC, 2012), Jonah Goldberg, founding editor of National Review Online and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, analyzes various media strategies used by liberals t...
52 min